The Virtual VAR series featuring the Yorkshire Whistler casts their eye over the Glasgow Derby, The Rangers 1, Celtic 2.
Willie Collum was chosen for this one.
BACKGROUND – I outlined a framework to assess the impact of Honest Mistakes in the SPFL.
03/04/22 The Rangers vs Celtic
Incident 1
Referee | Willie Collum |
Game Minute | 40th |
Incident | Maeda goes down in box under challenge from McGregor |
Outcome | No decision |
Evidence | BBC iPlayer – Sportscene – 2021/22: 03/04/2022
At 10:22 |
Incident 2
Referee | Willie Collum |
Game Minute | 61st |
Incident | Jack cross blocked by Carter-Vickers |
Outcome | No decision |
Evidence | BBC iPlayer – Sportscene – 2021/22: 03/04/2022
At 13:50 |
Incident 3
Referee | Willie Collum |
Game Minute | 64th |
Incident | Giakoumakis fouls Jack and Jack places his hand over Giakoumakis face |
Outcome | Free kick to TRFC and YC to Giakoumakis |
Evidence | BBC iPlayer – Sportscene – 2021/22: 03/04/2022
At 14:30 |
Yorkshire Whistler Verdict | Giakoumakis does catch Jack slightly late with a sliding challenge and this correctly deemed a foul and a ‘reckless’ challenge’ that sees a caution correctly issued.
There is a question mark over Jack’s reaction. As both players tangle on the floor, Jack initially appears to put his hand out and it rests on the Celtic player’s face. Although this does not appear to be done in an aggressive manner initially, he then seems to push down on Giakoumakis face to help him regain his footage. A bizarre way of using another player’s face to help you regain your balance. The laws of the game don’t cater for this ‘passive aggressive’ movement, and I suspect Jack is dabbling in a spot of gamesmanship, maybe to provoke the Celtic player into a reaction. There is no way that the referee sees any of this transpire and even if he did, Jack is very cute with his use of body language. Although I have speculated as to what may have transpired in this brief passage of play, ultimately there is no evidence to warrant a caution to Jack here. Verdict: Correct decision. |
Expected Points
Outcome |
No impact |
Incident 4
Referee | Willie Collum |
Game Minute | 78th |
Incident | Goldson goes down under challenge from Carter-Vickers from corner |
Outcome | No decision |
Evidence | BBC iPlayer – Sportscene – 2021/22: 03/04/2022
At 16:07 |
Yorkshire Whistler Verdict | Goldson & Carter Vickers tussle in the box as a corner is swung in and Goldson goes to ground, claiming an infringement.
Interesting incident to analyse here. What we see initial here the usual and regular grappling/jostling for position between players during a set piece. It starts as the expected ‘contact without clearing fouling the other player’ movement. Goldson & Carter Vickers both trying to get the upper hand from a positional point of view before the ball arrives. I do not believe that either player clearly fouls the other, until Carter Vickers decides to pull down on the front of Goldsons shirt. This shirt pull is only for a brief second and is done in such a way that the referee has no chance of seeing the infringement, from the angle he is stood at. Bearing in mind he is also trying to watch the various other challenges happening at the same time in a somewhat congested penalty area. I would also question if this momentary tug of the shirt, actually had any impact on Goldson’s ability to continue to compete for the ball. I suspect not, he simply feels the tug and drops to the ground appealing for the penalty. Although I do not believe the referee has committed any kind of clear & obvious error here, I suspect if VAR was in use in the SPFL, as it is being used in the English game currently, this incident would have resulted in a VAR review and a penalty kick being awarded to Rangers. Certainly, if you freeze frame the moment the shirt pulls, it would look quite incriminating, hence why I feel a VAR review would result in the penalty. However, this does not necessarily mean the wrong on field decision was made at the time. I am trying to not to contradict myself here and fully accept my verdict is only my opinion and is likely to be unaccepted by other people. I just feel that in the context of the contact already happening between Goldson & Carter-Vickers, this kind of momentary shirt pull did not have an impact on Goldson’s movement. When you are refereeing a high tempo, fast moving game, you get a feel for what should be penalised and what you should let go. And my gut feeling would have been not to penalise that particular incident. Verdict: Correct decision not to award the penalty. |
Expected Points
Outcome |
No impact |
Summary
My thanks as always to the Yorkshire Whistler.
Congratulations are due to Collum for an excellent refereeing performance throughout. Additionally, he got all the big calls correct.
Of course, the professional media fixated on the one the Yorkshire Whistler dismissed in barely a sentence.
No movement in the overall xPts position then.
After this week’s errors, Celtic have 3.64 LESS Points than expected and The Rangers have 1.47 MORE points than expected due to the cumulative impact of Honest Mistakes.
The overall difference, therefore, is 5.11 points.
Celtic currently lead by 6 points with six matches left.
The Cha says
Not watched the game back yet.
re Jack on Giako. I thought it wasn’t just the single action (push to face) but also forcing down with his foot/heel into the chest and pushing his head into GG’s afterwards.
Bronky appeared to think the same, as he quickly substituted Jack, probably believing correctly he had been lucky as was living on borrowed time.
Surprised that the ugly Lundstrum lunge from behind , that incredibly was their only yellow but was potentially a red given that he had no chance of the ball and could only result in injury to the Celt.
Disappointed that Maeda didn’t get a penalty and we failed to extend our points lead. 🙂
John says
Thanks for these Yorkshire Whistler articles. Always good stuff.
In essence we expect our referees to be able to determine from one (excl VAR) look which of two players is innocent & which is guilty. Reality is that often both are guilty AND innocent & sometimes neither.
Players simulate, exaggerate, howl & protest – then they each expect the referee to favour their personal version of events. It’s impossible to know if some players start games with the conning of the referee as part of their game plan but it often looks very much like that.
Referees have to infer from the totality of what THEY see what’s really happening & to decide accordingly. We know that Refs don’t know what’s going on inside a players head but they have & actually do infer precisely that. As your correspondent says, Maeda was less likely to have a penalty awarded because it looked like he fell over as an afterthought, rather than as a consequence of McGregor’s touch. Referees also seem to sometimes take into account a players’ history of such incidents; so if he has the reputation as a ‘diver’ the ref is conscious of this & it influences his decision.
Last night, I watched Burnley v Everton & saw a very experienced EPL referee being conned by a player to get a penalty awarded. Worse still, the VAR official was persuaded & convinced Mike Dean to look at the pitch side video.
Two players tussling for control of the ball (not unlike the Goldson/CCV episode above). Everton’s Gordon is on the outside with Burnley’s Westwood the defender, running almost alongside him but on the inside. Westwood was matching Gordon for pace & their arms were flailing about as part of the struggle for supremacy. Gordon elects to cut across Westwood but knows that he is still not clear, so as soon as he feels the next contact from Westwood’s arm he stops running & throws his left leg backwards & to the left ( a touch of JFK there) to engineer the telling contact with Westwood’s legs.
Westwood had his right hand on Gordon’s left shoulder but neither official understood the physics involved. Westwood would only have been holding Gordon’s shoulder, to stop him getting too far ahead; in other words to stop the forward momentum of Gordon’s upper body/shoulders. However, Gordon cannot simulate that since the tug was not strong enough to force it, so he deliberately stops running forward, throws his left leg backwards in the most unnatural way into Westwood’s legs – and then falls forward while looking towards the referee for his decision. Indeed, Gordon thought Dean had waved play on & got up quickly & regained control of the ball.
It looked like a penalty in live action, but quite how Dean & the VAR official & just as importantly the plonker commentating could not see exactly what has happened baffles me.
Westwood’s hand was on Gordon’s shoulder, but then Gordon himself had used his left hand to pull Westwood back seconds earlier. The usual tussling that we know happens when players compete for the ball.
For me, Westwood did nothing wrong that should have resulted in a penalty & Gordon could easily have been yellow carded for simulation.
With relegation from the EPL at stake & the loss of millions that would follow, such decision making needs to be better. More importantly, the competencies of officials need to of a higher standard – something we though VAR would help bring about.
celticbynumbers@btinternet.com says
Thanks
There will always be the human judgement element of it no matter the technology and protocols. And the players don’t really help the referees
Martin 2 says
Does the Yorkshire whistler realise that he’s on the wrong side of “the narrative” when he objectively reviews these things and comes to sensible conclusions?
I’m afraid he simply has no future in the Scottish media.
For my part I agree. I thought Maeda’s was a penalty at the time but I’m a celtic fan so my threshold for being sure is lower. What’s really interesting for me is the points vs expected points gap. All season it was tracking basically lockstep until the New Year and now we’re basically as many points ahead as we are expected points behind. Almost as if being the better team can overcome the decisions over the course of a season. We’d have to look at it over many seasons but if there is a regression to the mean pattern happening here that’s pretty useful and interesting. Keep the good work up.
celticbynumbers@btinternet.com says
Thanks Martin. I have not broached the subject of next season or him carrying on with this yet. i “think” he enjoys it but we’ll see.
As the season winds to the end i think people are realising that the differential as is would mean Celtic should virtually be champions by now. Some folk expected EVERY decision to be a conspiracy!